The L.A. Times music blog

Gucci Mane committed to mental institution

January 4, 2011 | 11:25
am

Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane has been committed to a mental facility after being deemed unfit to attend a probation hearing.

In a Fulton County, Ga., courtroom Monday, the MC (government name: Radric Davis) filed a special plea of mental incompetence, claiming he was in no state to fight prosecutors’ efforts to revoke his probation, TMZ.com reported.

In the plea, Gucci, 30, asserted that he was “unable to go forward and/or intelligently participate in the probation revocation hearing.”

The trap rapper was ordered into custody by a judge and committed to a mental health treatment facility where his condition was being evaluated.

His commitment is the latest setback for Gucci Mane. Despite critical props and growing fame (thanks to the No. 4 debut of his September album “The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted”), he has run afoul of the law several times, with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that the performer has been incarcerated in Fulton County “at least five times since 2005.”

In November, Gucci was arrested in Atlanta after police said he resistied arrest during a traffic stop. Officers said they used pepper spray on him after he assaulted another person during an argument. Charges of interference with government property, obstruction of officers, reckless driving and other counts, however, were eventually dropped. In May, Gucci Mane was released from an Atlanta jail after serving six months for violating probation on an assault charge.

Last month, another once prominent rapper, DMX, was also ordered into a mental health facility as a result of an “undiagnosed” mental condition.